- Women hold 50.3 percent of all management and professional positions.
- Yet, only 7.9 percent of Fortune 500 top earners and 1.4 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Why?
Women “Take Care,” Men “Take Charge:” Stereotyping of U.S. Business Leaders Exposed: The first in a series of Catalyst studies on stereotyping and its effects on women’s advancement in the workplace.
KEY LEARNINGS
- Men consider women to be less skilled at problem-solving, one of the qualities most associated with effective leadership.
- Since men far outnumber women in top management positions, this male-held stereotype dominates current corporate thinking.
- This problem-solving stereotype may contribute to the fact that although women hold more than 50 percent of all management and professionalpositions, they make up less than 2 percent of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 CEOs.
- Exposure to women leaders isn’t sufficient; often people with the most exposure towomen leaders hold even more stereotypical views.
Perceptions of Women Leaders vs. Reality
Perceptions of men and women leaders map to gender stereotypic traits, not to
reality and fact-based information.
- Both women and men considered more women to be superior to men at“take care” behaviors such as supporting and rewarding.
- Both women and men considered significantly more men superior to women at “take charge” behaviors such as delegating and influencing upward.
- Respondents were asked about their perceptions about women’s and men’s leadership behavior, not about style.
- Women and men stereotype leaders in similar ways except in judgments about one key leadership behavior: problem-solving.
- Women respondents said that more women were better at problem-solving than men.
- Men respondents said men were most superior to women in problem-solving effectiveness.
thinking. Problem-solving is crucial: It’s the competency most commonly associated with
effective leadership and hallmark trait of a CEO. In fact, it’s the embodiment of “take
charge” leadership.
For women in business, it’s a real “catch-22:” Because stereotyping causes people to lose faith in women’s problem-solving competence, they may be reluctant to follow the directions of women
leaders. With their problem-solving skills undermined, women lose interpersonal power.
This means that instead of using their credibility or expertise to influence followers, women may have to rely on their status or position to influence others. But as women comprise only 15.7 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers, women tend to have lower status position than their male counterparts.
“Extreme Perceptions” Make It Even Harder
Being exposed to women leaders doesn’t necessarily lessen stereotyping; often, it
reinforces stereotyping, creating even more “extreme perceptions” of differences between men’s and women’s leadership.
This is especially true for women who work in traditionally “masculine” occupations where their problem-solving skills are judged particularly harshly by their own subordinates—those they rely on most to implement their plans.
Stereotyping, therefore, often makes the demands on leadership much greater for
women than for men.
A Call to Action
Hiring more women executives or instituting more gender diversity programs isn’t enough.
The study makes clear that unless organizations take active steps to eradicate this
bias, women leaders will forever be undermined and misjudged, regardless of their
talents and aptitudes.
To combat the insidious influence of stereotyping, companies can:
- Institute more rigorous and transparent performance evaluation processes.
- Implement a series of checks and balances to safeguard against stereotyping.
- Educate managers and executives about the latent influence of stereotyping and ways to override it.
- Showcase the achievements of women leaders, particularly those in traditionally male-dominated fields.
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